Himarë (town)

Himarë is a town in southern Albania on the Albanian Riviera, part of Vlorë County, and the largest settlement and seat of the municipality of Himarë. The old settlement sits on a hill above the Ionian Sea on the site of the ancient Chaonian trading outpost of Chimaira, whose castle walls probably date to the fifth and fourth centuries BC, while the modern settlement grew along the coast around Spilë during the socialist period after the Second World War. Its population is predominantly Greek, and local speech is a southern Greek dialect alongside Tosk Albanian. The article gives a population of 5,418 in 2005 according to the Albanian Civil Registry offices. Visitors come for the castle, several Orthodox churches and the beaches at Spilë, Potam, Llaman and Livadhi.